From Internet regulation and online censorship to a clampdown on activists and non-governmental organisations, China has tightened controls on Chinese society since Xi Jinping assumed power in late 2012, first as Communist Party chief and then as president in 2013.

The kind of diversity seen in the US, despite Donald Trump, doesn't exist in China, where the run-up to Communist Party Congress offers a reminder of how the country works and why it would not care about human rights.

On December 23, outgoing U.S. president Barack Obama signed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act into law, allowing U.S. authorities to impose financial and travel restrictions on foreign individuals implicated in human rights violations.